IMPACT OF AN ADDITIONAL POLISHING METHOD ON SURFACE PHYSICAL, MICROMORPHOLOGIC AND MICROTOPOGRAPHIC PROPERTIES OF BULK FILL COMPOSITES
Dental polishing. Composite resins. Scanning electron microscopy. Atomic force microscopy. Wettability.
The objective of this work was to evaluate the surface roughness, wettability, compactness, mapping of chemical
elements, microtopography and micromorphology of bulk fill composites after additional polishing. The specimens
were prepared from each of the composites tested, four bulk fill: Filtek Bulk Fill (FBF), Tetric N-Ceram Bulk Fill (TBF),
Opus Bulk Fill (OBF), X-tra Fil (XF), and four conventional: Filtek Z250 XT (FZ), Grande (G), Tetric N-Ceram (T),
Vittra APS (V), and randomly distributed in 3 groups (n = 10): without finishing and polishing, finishing and polishing
with Astropol, and Astropol following Additional polishing with Astrobrush (Astropol + Astrobrush) (AA). The surface
roughness (Ra) and contact angles were measured using a profilometer and adapted goniometer, respectively. The
microtopography was evaluated using atomic force microscopy (AFM); micromorphology, compactness, scanning
electron microscopy (SEM) and the mapping of chemical elements using (SEM / EDS). Ra and contact angle were
analyzed by analysis of variance three factors and Tukey's test (p <0.05); the other results were described in a
descriptive way. Further polishing improved the surface properties in all analyzes involved.